DS 

413 




THE TRAVEL SERIES — No. 9 
Published Weekly >. Price, 50 Cents Annual Subscription, $25.00 December 20, 1897 

ENTEKKD AT THE CHIC/ ;0 POST-OFFICE AS SF.Cf)ND-CI-ASS MATTF.R 



INDIA 



BY 



JOHN L.STODDARD 



Illustrated and Embellished with One Hundred 

and Twelve Reproductions of 

Photographs 





WIa Hi' 
ECTION 



CHICAGO 
BELFORD, MIDDLEBROOK & COMPANY 

MDCCCXCVII 



Copyright, 1897, by John L. Stoddard 




INDIA 



BY 



JOHN L. STODDARD 



ILLUSTRATED AND EMBELLISHED WITH ONE HUNDRED 

AND TWELVE REPRODUCTIONS OF 

PLIOTOGRAPHS 




CHICAGO 

BELFORD, MIDDLEBROOK & COMPANY 

MDCCCXCVII 



F]J?ST COPV, 






Copyright, 1897 
By John L. Stoddard 



Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 
all rights reserved 






7- -' 




7 



/ ^ 



INDIA is in some respects the most difficult country in 
the world to understand. One thinks of it at times as 
one great nation, governed, it is true, by England, but 
still constituting one homo- 
geneous people. Nothing is 
further from the truth. It 
is a vast conglomeration of 
principalities and races, in 
some instances as different 
from each other as is France 
from Germany. The natives 
do not even speak a com- 
mon tongue. There are in 
India no less than two hun- 
dred distinct dialects, each 
unintelligible to speakers of 
any of the others; while, as 
if this were not enough, the 
people of the same commun- 
ity are subdivided into castes 
which will not even eat with '^ mohammedan. 

one another. And how appalling is their number — three 
hundred millions, — nearly one-fifth of the entire race, and 





INDIA 



double the population of the Roman Empire when its extent 
was greatest ! The amount of territory occupied by these 
miUions is enormous. The province of Lower Bengal is as 
large as France; that of Madras exceeds Great Britain and 
Ireland; that of Bombay equals Germany in area; and the 
size of the Punjab rivals that of Italy. 

To comprehend the heterogeneous mass inhabiting India 
appears at first as difficult as to explore an Indian jungle; but 




THE HUGLI RIVER. 



there is one trusty clue to guide us through the labyrinth, — 
Religion. This will explain to us the customs of that land as 
nothing else can ; for all these millions are so superstitious and 
fanatical that feelings of incredible intensity control their con- 
duct from the cradle to the grave. After Hinduism, the sec- 
ond great religion which prevails in India is Mohammedanism. 
Nineteen out of every twenty people in India are either Hin- 
dus or Mohammedans. Victoria, Empress of India, has more 
Moslem subjects than the Sultan himself. There are no less 
than fifty-seven millions of them, or more than the entire 
Japanese nation. Their wealth and power, it is true, have 



INDIA 



5 



largely disappeared ; but in the places where the Moslem 
crescent reached the zenith of its glory their splendid archi- 
tectural remains rival in elegance and grace the finest forms of 
Gothic or of Grecian art, and in themselves repay a journey 
around the world. 

The gateway to India on its eastern coast is Calcutta, the 
rival of Bombay. As we approached it, the multitude of 
ships and steamers on the river Hugh exceeded anything that 
I had ever seen. For several miles we sailed past vessels of 
the largest size, frequently anchored five abreast. I was in- 
formed that one of these ships had just brought from England 
a hundred and twenty tons of gin and forty tons of Bibles. 
If this proportion is maintained on all of them, we may dis- 
cover why the advent here of Christian nations is not regarded 
by the natives as an unmixed blessing. It is, however, 
probable that the gin is chiefly intended for the Europeans, 
while the poor heathen have to take the Bibles. 

Unlike most Indian cities, Calcutta offers very little of his- 
toric interest. Two hundred years ago it was a cluster of 
mud huts. To-day, by reason of some handsome structures, 
such as its Post-ofifice, it is proudly called the " City of Pal- 








A NATIVE PALACE. 



INDIA 



aces." Unfortunately, however, hovels are still so numer- 
ous that I believe no other town in India reveals in such 

immediate con- 





ON THE MAIDAN. 



trast the two 
extremes of 
British wealth 
and native deg- 
radation. In 
what may be 
called Angli- 
cized Calcutta 
are broad streets 
lined with stat- 
ues and impos- 
ing buildings. The latter, being constructed of brick cov- 
ered with painted stucco, are as a rule inferior to the public 
edifices of Bombay Avhich are built of stone; nevertheless 

their size often 

renders the m 
quite palatial in 
appearance. 

The favorite 
promenade of 
Calcutta, known 
as Maidan, ex- 
tends for more 
than two miles 
on the river- 
bank, and is as 
level as a parlor 
floor. Broad 

ANC.I.lCIZia) CAI crTIA. 

carnage-roads 

wind over it between expanses of soft turf and through a 

multitude of tropical plants. During the day its famous 



i 
FjT 



^^liPfiii 

"'-■-•My.. 






INDIA 




driveways are almost deserted. For while the sun retains it 
in his fiery grasp all Europeans shun it like a heated oven. 

Occasional stat- 
ues of distin- 



guished Eng- 
lishmen then 
seem to be its 
only occupants. 
But when the 
solar shafts fall 
on this prome- 
nade obliquely, 
and pierce with 
difficulty, if at 
all, the droop- 
ing fringes of the palms, the British colony appears as if by 
magic, invading the vast area from all directions, much as the 
chorus of an opera troupe pours in upon an empty stage. 
Between five and seven o'clock the spectacle here displayed 
is rarely, if ever, 
equaled in the 
world. While 
military m u s i c 
stirs the balmy 
air, one sees along 
these avenues the 
most astonishing 
varieties of cos- 
tumes and com- 
plexions. Even 
the simplest car- 
riage of an Eng- 
lish family will have its native coachman robed in white from 
head to foot and a dark groom resplendent in huge colored 




A CALCUTTA "HEROIC. 



INDIA 




turban and gold-embroidered jacket ; and these, with Indian 
princes, wealthy Parsees, and rich Hindus, give to the scene 
a touch of Oriental splendor. 

But, while the English in India are prudent 
enough to avoid the parks in the middle of 
the day, they have decided, absurdly enough, 

that the fashionable 
time for making calls 
shall be from twelve 
to two. One wretched 
victim of this social 
tyranny recently de- 
fined these Indian 
morning-calls as 

" The destruction that 
wasteth at noonday." 

We could not won- 
der that the English 
who reside in India look on Calcutta in the winter as an 
Eastern Paradise. It is, indeed, the centre of the Govern-, 
ment, and here the Governor-general of India holds a court, 
said to surpass in brilliancy that of most European sovereigns. 
At Christmas time, especially, the town is thronged with ofifi- 
cers of the army and navy and all the notable men in Eng- 
land's Indian service. 

Then, also, hundreds of visitors from Europe, America, 
and Australia constitute a most distinguished and enjoyable 
society. But this is only one side of Calcutta. The native 
side is very different. The former is, of course, more agree- 
able to the English, and is the one more frequently de- 
scribed by travelers. But we all know what Europeans are 
like. The question is, what do the natives resemble? For, 
in India, where the foreigners number about one hundred 
thousand, the natives reach a population of three hundred 



DRESSED FOR WORK. 



INDIA 9 

millions. They are very easily studied at Calcutta, for at 
almost any point a short walk brings one from public build- 
ings and spacious thoroughfares to the disgusting filth and 
poverty of the common Hindus. Most of the native streets 
are dirty alleys; most of their dwellings, hovels made of sun- 
dried mud or of bamboo poles covered with coarse matting. 
The occupants, in many instances, have their well-nigh naked 
bodies greased with rancid butter (which they consume inter- 
nally as well), and even their hair is smeared with the same 
mixture. The pungent odor of this lubricant, combined with 
the smoke of burned manure, which is the fuel of India, gave 
to the atmosphere a pecuUar quality which I shall always 
associate with Hindustan. 

Some of the natives — tailors and cobblers — we found hard 
at work, seated in holes in a plastered wall, like dogs in their 

kennels. Even , „ .- ~-^::~,, 

the splendor of \ 
the Mogul pal- 
aces which we 
afterward beheld 
could not make 
me forget this 
misery and deg- 
radation. India 
is a land of ter- - ^ 

rible extremes. 
Whatever is good . >!« ^ 

there is superla- ^*''"i' t 

Sit 
tively good, and ^t.„ . - 



what is bad can ^^ 






I'll 



hardly be imag- the native quarter. 

ined worse. Thus, in the matter of hotels, the very best in 
Calcutta is the Great Eastern ; but it is my deliberate convic- 
tion, based upon an experience of many never-to-be-forgotten 



lO 



INDIA 



days and nights, that, whereas, all the hotels in India are 
bad, those of Calcutta are worse than those of any city of 
its size and prominence in any country of the civilized world. 
It is true, the Great Eastern is well situated, and covers a 
great area; but in this case, "O, what a goodly outside false- 
hood hath ! ' ' 

My traveling companion and myself, having telegraphed 
in advance, were assigned to a room on the best floor of the 
hotel. We reached it by a long, dark corridor about four 

feet wide. This 
space was made 
still sm.aller by 
a line of Hindu 
servants who 
were lying on 
the floor — one 
in front of each 
door. Through 
these we picked 
our way to roomi 
number " 54. " 
I give the num- 
ber, not that the 
reader may spe- 
cial]}' avoid it when he goes there (since most of the other 
rooms are equally bad), but that, on seeing it, he may 
remember me and murmur: "There was a man who told the 
truth." The walls of this room did not come within two 
feet of the ceiling, and, as most of the other apartments were 
equally well ventilated, we assisted by day at half a dozen 
family quarrels, and at night could hear the Avhole brigade 
of Hindus snoring in the corridor. The Oriental way of 
calling servants is by clapping the hands. This is occasionally 
inconvenient ; for in a room next to mine was a refractory 






liltIK KENNELS. 



INDIA 



13 



child, and every time his mother spanked him all the servants 
in the entry responded to the call. 

Number "54" was a whitewashed cell with very primitive 
furniture, and with the filthiest piece of straw matting that I 
ever saw, until, on a subsequent visit to Calcutta, I had room 
number "77," in which was a still worse specimen. I picked 
my way about on both of them, much as a lady crosses a 
muddy street. 

Summoning- our Indian servant, we asked him to unpack 

the sheets, wad- ^ -^ 

ded quilts, pil- 
low-cases, and 
towels w h i c h 
every traveler 
who respects 
h i m s e 1 f will 
carry with him 
through the In- 
dian Empire; 
but, on turning 
to inspect my 
bed, I found that 
two black crows 
were perched 
upon it, like 
Poe's raven on the " bust of Pallas, just above my chamber 
door." Apparently, too, they were determined to leave it 
"nevermore; " for they were as tenacious of their temporary 
home as Irish peasants resisting an eviction. When they had 
finally flown away through an open window, I requested that 
the solitary piece of linen which adorned the couch be re- 
moved. Presently, hearing a cooing noise, I looked up 
toward the ceiling and saw a nest of pigeons in a hole in 
the wall. Dirt and straw had fallen from this upon my coat 




THE GUF.AT EASTERN IIOII 



14 



INDIA 



hanging on a chair beneath; and an indifferent servant, sum- 
moned in hot haste, at length dehberately chmbed a ladder, 
removed the nest, and stuffed the hole with a newspaper! 
Such was my room in the best hotel in the capital of Eng- 
land's Indian Empire. 




NATIVE LIFE. 



On entering the dining-room of the Great Eastern, we 
found that behind the chair of each guest stood his private 
servant or "boy." The sight of these bare-footed, white- 
robed Hindus running about in quest of food, suggested to 
me a panic-stricken crowd of colored people rushing from 



INDIA 



15 




their beds at night. When coffee was served at dinner, we 
could at first obtain no sugar with it, for sugar is not served 

in bowls upon 
the table, lest 
the famished 
natives empty it 
into their pock- 
ets. A little of 
it is brought in 
a wine-glass to 
each guest, who 
is also allowed 
but one spooii. 
As each servant 

is responsible for his master's spoon, I saw my attendant, 
between each course, wipe mine on a napkin when he thought 
he was observed — otherwise, on his clothing! Even then, 

there were not 

spoons enough 
to go around, 
and we amused 
ourselves by 
watching three 
or four Hindus 
struggle for one, 
and we made 
bets as to which 
would carry off 
the prize. 

Where the 
imposing Post- 
office of Cal- 
cutta now stands took place, in 1756, the tragedy of the 
" Black Hole of Calcutta." The prison itself, known as the 




THE POST-OFFICE, CALCUTTA. 



i6 



INDIA 





" Black Hole," 
together with 
the fort of which 
i it formed a part, 
has long since 
disappeared; 
but throughout 
the English- 
speaking world, 
its name is still 
suggestive of 
atrocious cruel- 
ty. When the 
fortress of Cal- 
cutta was cap- 
tured from the English by the Indian prince, Suraj-al-Dowlah, 
and a horde of natives, the survivors of the garrison, num- 
bering one hundred and forty-six men, were locked up for the 
night in a room 
only eighteen 
feet square and 
containing but 
one small win- 
dow. It was 
the month of 
June, when in 
Calcutta the 
heat is, under 
the most favor- 
able circum- 
stances, almost 
unendurable for 
Europeans. In 
vain the suffer- 




RELIGIOUS ABLUTION. 



INDIA 



17 



ers, who were crowded so closely together that they could 
scarcely move, implored their jailers to release them, promis- 
ing" them any amount of money in return for liberty. The 
natives, jeering at their anguish, remained obdurate, and when 
the dawn revealed the terrible result of those long hours of 
maddening heat, intolerable thirst, and slow asphyxiation, 




THE KING Oir BEASTS IN INDIA. 



one hundred and twenty-three were dead, and twenty-three 
pale, haggard men stood raving with delirium or faintly gasp- 
ing at the window, standing, as on a mound, upon the corpses 
of their comrades. 

One of our first walks in Calcutta was to the river Hugh, 
in whose waters a multitude of Hindus were bathing, much 
as we had seen them at Benares. Here, as there, bath- 
ing is a religious duty, and prayers are uttered after each 



INDIA 





A RETIRED THUG. 



ablution. On the bank were 
many individuals who had been 
brought here to die ; for this 
river, being one of the mouths 
of the Ganges, is sacred, and to 
expire here insures one's en- 
^^^ trance into heaven. I was 
^^^' astonished and saddened to find 
that many of the disgusting 
p features of Hindu idolatry and 

% superstition are as prevalent in 

Calcutta as in the cities of the 
interior. We visited, for exam- 
ple, close by the river, a Hindu 
temple, known as Kalighat, and 
there beheld more loathsome sights than any which we had 
witnessed at Benares. The Goddess Kali, who is worshiped 
here by hundreds of thousands of people yearly, is repre- 
sented by a hideous idol, with human skulls around her neck 
and with a mouth apparently reeking with clots of blood. 
A draught of 
war m h u m a n 
blood is be- 
lieved to make 
her happy for a 
thousand years. 
Here in a court- 
yard, slippery 
with gore, we 
saw a sacrifice 
of kids and 
goats which are 
slain every day 
to appease the 




KALIGHAT. 



INDIA 19 

deity. The victims' heads lay about the altar like croquet 
balls round a finishing stake, and priests, degraded in appear- 
ance, offered for a fee to make more sacrifices merely as a 
spectacle. It should be remembered that this is not an 
obscure and unimportant temple of Calcutta: on the con- 
trary, it is the most popular Hindu shrine in the city, and the 
very name Calcutta is derived from Kalighat. 




A GROUP OF HINDUS. 



Moreover, the goddess Kali was the special patroness of 
the Thugs, the professional stranglers of India, who for 
many years committed murders here in the name of religion. 
These fanatical assassins used to roam about the country in 
bands of from ten to two hundred. Each man had a special 
duty to perform; one was the leader; others were scouts; 
some were pick-bearers ; others were grave-diggers. Dis- 
guised as pilgrims or merchants, they would associate them- 
selves with their intended victims in the most friendly style 
until a favorable opportunity presented itself. Then they 



20 



INDIA 



would suddenly seize and strangle the doomed men, and hide 
their bodies in graves dug with pickaxes which had been 
previously blessed by the priests, and were symbolical of the 
teeth of Kali. Two-thirds of the booty thus obtained was 
divided among the murderers, and the remainder given to the 
goddess. Even now, although the British Government has 
suppressed the Thugs, the Temple of Kali is as popular as 
ever, and hundreds of thousands still worship at her shrine. 
Within the precincts of this temple we beheld several 



specimens of In- 
whom seemed 
of beggar, 
postor,and 
spy. In a 
ing area, 
b ] i n g a 
heap, a 
these men 
ed, entirely 
on a mound 
^v h i c h they 
edly. Not con- 
sults thus gained. 




dian fakirs, each of 
a combination 
fanatic, im- 
polit ical 
disgust- 
r e s e m - 
garbage 
score of 
were seat- 
naked, up- 
of ashes, in 
rolled repeat- 
tent with the re- 
they even rubbed 
bodies, which had 



the dirt all over their ^ ^^''■^• 

been previously greased in order to retain it. Their hair, 
matted with filth, reached nearly to their waists, and was 
painted yellow, and on this they threw occasional handfuls of 
dust and ashes. Yet when a few of them followed us into the 
street asking for money, they seemed to attract no attention, 
although they ran along beside our horse-car, in which were 
several European women and children. A sickening feeling, 
similar to that which I had felt in Canton, came over me at 
the sight of this human degradation ; especially when I re- 
membered that there are in India more than a million of 



' ¥ 




INDIA 



23 



these half-crazed mendicants and frauds, who are revered and 
ahnost worshiped by multitudes of men and women, who wiU 
actually stoop and kiss their feet. 

It is no wonder, therefore, that after such experiences, for- 
getful for a moment of the agreeable features of India, the 
following lines were, in an hour of reaction, inscribed in the 
author's diary : 




THE GREAT BANYAN TREE. 



A WAIL P^ROM INDIA'S CORAL STRAND. 

I 'm weary of the loin-cloth, 

And tired of naked skins; 
I 'm sick of filthy, knavish priests 

Who trade in human sins: 
These millions of the great unwashed 

Offend both eye and nose; 
I long for legs in pantaloons 

And feet concealed in hose. 

A wail of human misery 

Is ringing in my ears; 
The sight of utter wretchedness 

Has filled my eyes with tears; 
The myriad huts of mud and straw 

Where millions toil and die 
Are blots upon this fertile land 

Beneath an Orient sky. 



24 INDIA 

I 'm weary of the nasal rings 

And juice-discolored lips; 
I cannot bear these brown-skinned brats 

Astride their mothers' hips; 
I loathe the spindling Hindu shanks 

With dirt encrusted hard; 
I 'm nauseated by the hair 

That reeks of rancid lard. 

I '11 ride no more in little cabs 

That serve as railroad-cars, 
Each barely twenty feet in length 

And swayed by countless jars; 
Mv bones are racked by traveling 

In India's jerky way: 
Far better weeks in Pullman cars 

Than one night in Cathay! 

I 'm sick at heart (and stomach too) 

Of India's vile hotels, 
Whose rooms are drearier and less clean 

Than many prison cells; 
Where servants swarm like cockroaches 

Yet nothing can be had. 
And where your private " boy " alone 

Prevents your going mad. 

I 'm weary of the sun-hats too 

Like toad-stools made of pith; 
I 'm sick of Buddha's " sacred tooth " 

And every other myth. 
Good-bye to whining mendicants 

Who show their loathsome sores! — 
I 'm glad to take the steamer now, 

And sail for other shores. 

It was with great relief that we left Kalighat and its hor- 
rors, and made our way to the Botanical Garden, in the 
suburbs of Calcutta, to view its celebrated banyan tree, the 
largest in the world. Who can forget this marvelous phe- 
nomenon, which furnished one of the illustrations in our 
school-books twenty-five years ago? It looked larger than I 
expected; though I should have remembered that it is steadily 



INDIA 



25 










A VOUNG BANYAN. 



increasing, year by year, for its vitality seems to rival that of 
the earth itself. The circumference of its outer tendrils now 

sweeps through a cir- 

cuit of one thousand 
feet ! 

Not without awe 
did we approach and 
stand beneath its 
mighty roof. Though 
the main t r u n k is 
fifty feet in circum- 
ference, it was not 
that which most as- 
tonished me. What filled me with amazement was its hori- 
zontal branches, stretching out on every side for more than 
one hundred and fifty feet. These drop to the ground hun- 
dreds of tiny filaments, which, taking root, become themselves 
subordinate trees, send up nourishment to the parent stock, 
hold up its sturdy limbs, and allow them to advance till they 
can let fall other grappling-irons to the earth and put forth 

new leaves to 
the s u n . W e 
walked beneath 
this banyan tree 
as in a grove, 
and, sitting with- 
in its shade on 
benches placed 
for weary trav- 
elers, admired 
this marvelous 
growth, Avhich, 






Si*f' 



GOING TO CREMATION. 



nevertheless, seems here so natural and easy that we invol- 
untarily asked ourselves why other trees do not adopt this 



26 



INDIA 



system of indefinite expansion, — this secret of arboreal im- 
mortality. 

As we were returning from the Botanical Garden, we met 
two natives carrying, in a kind of sling suspended from a pole, 
the body of a man. 

"Where are they taking him?" I asked. 
"To the river Hugh," was the reply. 
"Is he dead?" 

"Not yet; but he will die soon, and they are anxious that 
he may expire beside the sacred stream." 
"What will become of his body then?" 
"It will be cremated at the Burning Ghat." 
"Let us go thither! " I exclaimed. 

On reaching it, we were introduced to its Hindu superin- 
tendent, who is appointed by the English Government to 

examine all bodies 
brought there, to 
ascertain the cause 
of death and to in- 
form the police if 
he has reason to 
suspect a murder. 
Cremation is one of 
the characteristic 
features, not only 
of Calcutta, but of 
the whole of India, 
and in such an over- 
populated and un- 
healthy land it is 
almost a necessity. W^hat I object to, therefore, is not the 
act itself, but the coarse, brutal way in which it is usually 
performed. 

The enclosure of the Burning Ghat is an ill-kept, dirty 




UNDER THK r.ANVAN TREE. 



INDIA 



27 




^*«^^ 




IN THE BURNING GHAT. 



area, bounded on one side by a grimy portico. In this we 
stood to watch the ceremonies. At one end was a kind of 
cattle-pen, where mourners wait until a vacant space for burn- 
ing can be given them. I think I can say without much ex- 
aggeration that 
any respectable 
dog would, after 
taking one look 
at that wait- 
ing-room, have 
walked out im- 
mediately. 

Three cool- 
ies, whose oily 
skin glistened 
in the sun, at 
length brought 
in a body on a bamboo litter. This they let fall upon the 
ground with the same care that an American " baggage- 
smasher" shows in handling a trunk. By walking ten feet 
farther, they could, at least, have laid it in the shade: instead 
of that they left it in the broiling sun. The superintendent 
asked some questions, and then informed us that the corpse 
was that of a man who had died half an hour before of 
rheumatism. 

We did not have to wait long for the cremation. Without 
delay the coolies brought in ten or a dozen logs of wood about 
four feet in length, and threw them down close to the body. 
So roughly was this done that some of the sticks bounded six 
inches from the ground, and I fully expected to see them 
strike the corpse. Wood is the most expensive factor in this 
system of cremation. A funeral with the amount of kindling 
here described costs a dollar; children half-price. Yet even 
this is not the cheapest method. Sometimes less wood is 



28 



INDIA 




WAITING FOR WOOD. 



used. In such cases the body is not entirely consumed, and 
the remnants must be buried. Formerly they were thrown 

into the river 
1 1 amonq; the bath- 
' I ers, but this is 
now prohibited. 
A The funeral- 
tv'l pyre, when con- 
I structed, formed 
t~ — ' a pile of logs, ar- 
ranged in cross- 
tiers. On this the body was laid, its only covering being a 
bit of cotton. I could see plainly that the limbs were not 
yet rigid, nor had the eyes been closed. To make up for the 
shortness of the pyre the legs were bent back at the knees. 
Another layer of sticks was then placed upon the body to 
keep it in position. All was now ready for the burning. It 
is the Hindu custom for the nearest male relative to light the 
fire, and in this 
instance a son 
of the deceased, 
about sixteen 
years of age, took 
up some wisps 
of straw, and 
aided by his lit- 
tle brother six 
years old, walked 
around the pile 
of wood, lighting 
the kindling on 
every side. This 
was not done, however, with solemnity or the least emotion. 
The other relatives looked on as listlessly as if they were 



"^S 



KEADY TO LIGHT THE PYRE. 



INDIA 



assisting at a bonfire, and called out to the son to light it 
better here or there. A priest was meanwhile mumbling over 
something like a prayer, but no one paid him the least atten- 
tion, and two of the body-bearers laughed and talked so 
boisterously as to drown his voice. "Are the bodies of wealthy 
Hindus burned in this filthy area?" I inquired. 

"Yes," was 
the reply: " but 
their pyres us- 
ually contain 
more or less san- 
d a 1 - w o o d and 
spices, and large 
fees are then de- 
manded by the 
assistants." 

I have dwelt 
thus on the Hin- 
du system of 
cremation, not 
only because it 
made upon me 
a profound im- 
pression, but 
also from the 
fact that it is 
typical of what 
is going on all over India. Thousands are burned somewhere 
in these densely populated provinces every day, and nothing 
is more strikingly illustrative of Hindu customs. But, as 
performed here, cremation lacks all delicacy and solemnity, 
and the last crematory act that I beheld was as revolting as 
the first. 

One of the most remarkable and interestinfj cities of India 




ARRANGING THE BODY. 



INDIA 




is Delhi. In 
point of age it 
challenges com- 
parison with Be- 
nares. It ante- 
dates by many 
centuries the 
Rome of Rom- 
ulus. It is po- 
etically called 
the " Rome of 
Asia." It has 
been seven times 
ruined and re- 

DELHI. 

built. The des- 
olate plain surrounding it resembles the Campagna. Through- 
out an area of twenty-four square miles are strewn the frag- 
ments of the city's former grandeur. Much of its past is too 
indefinite to ap- 
peal to us; but 
there is one mag- 
nificent epoch in 
its history, only 
three h u n d r e d 
years ago, which 
gives to it a fas- 
cination rarely 
equaled even in 
the Orient. For 
Delhi was the 
capital of India's 
Mohammedan 
conquerors, — 
the favorite home 



L»r*»" 




A RUIN NEAR PELHI. 



INDIA 



33 



of those incomparably rich and lavish sovereigns, the Great 
Moguls. 

Perhaps the reader may here knit his brow and say below 
his breath, "Who were the Great Moguls?" For, owing to the 
busy lives that we have led since leaving school and college, 
we possibly remember of them now only what Thomas Moore 
told us in his poem "Lalla Rookh." Few things are easier 
to remember, however, than an outline of the Mogul Em- 
pire. Only three great heroes in that dynasty need to 
be recalled, — ^Baber, the Founder; Akbar, the Ruler; and 
Shah Jehan, the Builder. No matter for the others. These 
names are like the three stars in Orion's belt. Who, save 
astronomers, ever care to trace the rest of that great constella- 
tion in the vault of night? Baber, who was born almost con- 
temporaneously with the discovery of America by Columbus, 
invaded and conquered a large part of India in 1525. His 
throne was the saddle, his canopy the sky. He was a Moham- 
medan, — a true specimen of those followers of the Prophet 
who had already built the Mosque of Cordova in Spain, wrested 
from Christian hands the sepulchre of Jesus, and placed the 

crescent on ____^ the dome of 

Santa ^<if^iPff^ n- „- v. "i '• 'k^5^>»^ Sophia 




AN ANllKN'l KIKIKKSS. 



*SSi,S*"i||^^ 



34 



INDIA 



in Stamboul. He would have been remarkable in any age, 
for with the talents of a warrior and administrator he com- 
bined fondness for literature, music, and architecture. He 
even wrote his own biography in memoirs which have recently 
been translated into English. They are extremely interesting, 




I m- MMSOIFl'IM OF AKB^R. 



for in them Baber tells without restraint the secrets of his 
heart. The grandson of this conqueror was Akbar, one of 
the most successful men that ever occupied a throne. A 
study of his life astonished me. His was the task not merely 
to extend his Indian Empire, but to unite the various nation- 
alities of which it was composed. This he accomplished 
grandly, and, though he was a contemporary of Queen Eliza- 
beth and Henry IV, the romantic story of his victories, his 
statesmanship, and private life, reads like the history of Julius 
Caesar. He was a handsome man, famed for his physical 



INDIA 



37 



strength and captivating manners. He was affectionate and 
loyal to his friends, and ready to forgive his enemies; yet 
was a most successful warrior and a determined ruler. His 
breadth of mind was extraordinary. Although born and 
bred a Moslem, he nevertheless employed, without distinc- 
tion, both Hindus and Mohammedans, and had among his 
friends the followers of Brahma, Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus. 
His motto was: "There is good in every creed. Let us 
adopt what is good and discard the remainder. 

When he was dead, men realized Avith astonishment that 
during his long reign of forty- 
nine years India had been exempt 
from foreign invasions, that uni- /' 

versal peace had been established, 
and that the men of every 
sect had lived and wor- 
shiped in security. 

The tomb of Akbar, 
fifteen miles from Agra, 
is a noble edifice of 
richly- tinted sandstone 
and white marble, com- 
bining beauty, strength, 
and majesty. This was, 
in fact, the style of archi- 
tecture that Akbar loved. 
For, in addition to all 
else, this emperor built 
the most imposing struc- 
tures to be found in In- 
dia. Not the most beau- 
tiful structures : that was 
the work of Shah Jehan, 
the builder of the Taj 





^-'A^^.j: 




OLD INDIAN SHHINES. 



38 



INDIA 



■g^i 



Mahal. The warHke Akbar built gigantic fortresses. His 
grandson reared within them the most elaborate palaces 
this earth has seen. One worked in granite, the other in 

alabaster; — 
the genius of 
the first was 
akin to that of 
Michelangelo ; 
that of the sec- 
ond possessed 
the inspiration 
of a Raphael. 

On the fifth 
and loftiest 
story of this 
mausoleum 
stands the cen- 
otaph of Akbar, 
his body being 
as usual buried 
in the crypt 
below. This 




fT* 



P 




ONE OF THE AFPROACHES TO AKBAR S MAUSOLEIIM. 



upper story is a courtyard of white marble. In the centre (its 
only canopy the sapphire sky) is a sarcophagus of alabaster, 
richly carved and bearing an appropriate epitaph. Three feet 
from this rises a marble pedestal, in the top of which is a 
slight cavity. It gave me an idea of the magnificence of 
those old days that I had never grasped before, to learn that 
here, so far above the usual sight of men, once rested that 
most famous jewel in the world, ^ — the Kohinoor diamond; 
now in the possession of one, who, though she has never set 
foot in India, is, nevertheless, the present Empress of the 
Mogul Empire — Queen Victoria. 

To appreciate the third great monarch of the Mogul 



INDIA 



39 



Empire, Shah Jehan, one must inspect the palace built by 
him at Delhi. When I first stepped within the audience- 
chamber of the Grand Moguls, it seemed to nie that all I had 
read and heard of it had given me no idea of its amazing 
richness. It so exceeded all my expectations that the result 
was just the same as if I had not known that such enchanting 
dreams of Eastern architects had ever been materialized in 
stone. Here are long corridors and rooms which are not 
merely paved, roofed, and lined with purest marble; that 
marble itself is covered with 
sculptures in relief until each 
block becomes a masterpiece 
of art. Nor is this all, for, 
spreading over the pave- 
ment, twined about the col- 
umns, and sparkling on the 
ceilings, are variously col- 
ored vines, leaves, and 
flowers. " Are these walls 
painted, then?" one natural- 
ly inquires. Far from it. 
This decoration is obtained 
by means of precious stones, 
inlaid like Florentine mosaic. 
Yes, in this palace there are 
miles of garlands, wreaths, 
and tendrils, growing appar- 
ently in great luxuriance, yet 
actually composed of jasper, 
agate, onyx, goldstone, 
and carnelian, with here and 
there inscriptions from the Koran, all outlined in mosaic on a 
background as white as snow. 

Set in the walls are graceful pockets, such as we see in 




THE CENOTAPH. 



40 



INDIA 



the courts of the Alhambra, in which the veiled and jeweled 
ladies of the palace kept their slippers or their gems. Here 
in the softened light I could have easily fancied that my out- 
stretched hand might pluck bouquets of roses and camellias. 
But in reality, the trellises on which they grew were marble 
screens, and the green leaves and ruby petals of the flowers 
on these walls glowed in precious stones. 




THE MOGUL PALACE AT DELHI. 



No words are adequate to portray this sculptured loveli- 
ness. Hence, let me ask you to assist me. You have, 
perhaps a piece of Florentine mosaic which you treasure as a 
brooch or paper-weight. Expand that into a panel set in an 
alabaster wall, or into a stately column brilliant as a prism. 
In your home there is, perhaps, a Persian rug whose colors 
you admire. Transform that into a mosaic, and with it pave 
the floor or decorate the roof. Again, you have a bit of Chi- 
nese ivory elaborately carved. Magnify that till it forms a mile 
of marble balustrades. Now multiply these panels, prisms, 



INDIA 



43 




JEWELKD WALLS. 



rugs, and screens 
and having made 
of them a fairy 
palace, delicate 
as frost-work, 
insert within its 
walls a million 
glittering gems; 
then, as you gaze 
enraptured at 
your Avorkman- 
ship, murmur to 
yourself, "This 
is a little like 
the palace of the 
Grand Moguls! " 
Yet what once existed here was vastly richer and more elegant 
than what is visible to-day. We saw, for example, the corner 

of an alabaster 



pedestal, — all 
that is left now of 
thefamous"Pea- 
cock Throne," 
on -which the 
Mogul emperor 
sat in majesty. 
That throne was 
one of the mar- 
vels of the world. 
It was made by 
order of Shah 
J e h a n , w hose 
jewelers labored 
for seven years 




FLOWERS IN PRECIOUS STONES. 



44 



INDIA 



in its decoration. Its value was no less than thirty million 
dollars. Its framework was of solid gold, encrusted with 
innumerable precious stones. Above it stretched a golden 
canopy fringed with pearls. The back was made to represent 
two jeweled peacocks with expanded tails, whose colors were 
reproduced by means of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and dia- 
monds; while, to crown all, upon the top of this imperial 
seat was perched a parrot carved from a single emerald. 




> , , . 1 , i-s ^fv»'v,'■^'r>•^^%fv*rv■^/yi•y^^v>;>J^',^a(,^•;»A,»,^>■^»^xV^^,•;>^^^ 



AN IVORY MANUSCRIPT-HOLDER. 



We cannot wonder, therefore, that upon these walls was 

traced in exquisite mosaic a Persian verse whose meaning is 

as follows : — 

" If there be a paradise on earth, it is here." 

One is, of course, reminded by this of Moore's rendition 
of it in his poem, " Lalla Rookh," when he causes one of the 
inmates of this palace to sing: — 

" Come hither, come hither — by night and by day 

We linger in pleasures that never are gone; 
Like the waves of the summer, as one dies away 

Another as sweet and as shining comes on. 
And the love that is o'er, in expiring, gives birth 

To a new one as warm, as unequall'd in bHss; 
And oh! if there be an Elysium on earth, 

It is this, it is this." 



INDIA 



45 




iHiiKSixL fii'" rni'" rHACoc-K thkonk 



end was near. Sooner or later, fate 
cumulated wealth. The very richness 
attracted the despoiler. Tempt- 
ed by such a dazzling prize, in 
1738, a Shah of Persia captured 
Delhi and its contents, plundered 
this gorgeous edifice, and carried 
off to Teheran the Peacock 
Throne and more than a thousand 
camel-loads of gems and 
precious ornaments, valued, 
it is said, at four hundred 
million dollars. 

Thirty years ago, after 
the Indian mutiny, the last 
of the Moguls, heir to the throne 
of Akbar and Shah Jehan, was 
tried by English officers in this 



But, alas! there 
is no Elysium 
on earth. This 
certainly was far 
from being one. 
Even its build- 
er, Shah Jehan 
(dethroned by 
his ungrateful 
son), was not 
allowed to oc- 
cupy it; and 
after he, the 
last of the il- 
lustrious three, 
was gone, the 
invariably scatters ac- 
of this Mogul capital 




PAST AND PRESENT. 



46 



INDIA 




TRAVELING AS FREIGHT. 



glorious palace of his ancestors for treason to Great Britain. 
Judgment was found against him, and, having been banished 
forever from India, he died a few years later in the British 
settlement of Burma. Ironical indeed, therefore, seems the 
inscription on these glittering walls. The Mogul dynasty is 
gone forever, and in these voiceless corridors of vanished 
Oriental splendor our echoing footsteps seemed to murmur 
sadly, ''Sic transit gloria jmindi." 

The morning after our visit to the Mogul palace, we drove 
far out upon the plain surrounding Delhi. The object of this 
expedition Avas to behold a minaret built in honor of the Mos- 
lem general, Kutub, who conquered Delhi seven hundred 
years ago. It is called after him the Kutub Minar. I gazed 




IN THE UAVS OK 1 HE MOGULS. 



INDIA 



49 



upon it with astonishment. Its color was what first im- 
pressed me. It is a beautiful Pompeian red, the material 
being Indian sandstone. Yet, near the top, with exquisite 
effect, it wears a circle of white marble, like a coronet of 
pearls, the two combining with the sky to make the glorious 
tricolor we see so frequently in India — the red, white, and 
blue. The entire column is fluted from top to bottom, and 
to relieve it of monotony, it is divided into five sections, 
marked by projecting galleries of the finest sculpture, so deli- 
cately carved that they may be compared to bracelets on a 
lady's arm. So solidly was this stupendous tower constructed, 
that not only are its ornamentations still perfect, but not the 
least crack in its masonry can be discovered, inside or out, 
despite the lapse of seven hundred years. Some think this to 
have been a monument of victory rather than a minaret, but 
it may well have answered both these purposes. At all events, 
it is the most imposing emblem of Mohammedan power that 
this earth can show. With the exception of 

the Washington obelisk, ^ it is the tallest isolated 

monument in the world. ^^ Utterly distinct from 

any building, this splen- '^ did shaft shoots upward 

to the height of two W M hundred and fifty feet, 

tapering gradually all -' || the way, till from a cir- 

cuit of one hundred and jlji fifty feet at the base, it 

holds against the sky a 



diameter. Moreover, 
upon its surface are 




ring but ten feet in 
beautifully carved 
decorations which may 



THE KUTUB .MINAR, 



So 



INDIA 



be compared to sculptured rings. They are broad bands 
of letters cut into the solid stone, and reproduce in well- 
nigh indestructible form passages from the Koran. One 
of them reads as follows: "Allah invites to Paradise and 
brings into the way of righteousness all who are willing to 
enter." Unutterably solemn, therefore, seems this mighty 
column, looking majestically down from its imposing height 
upon the silent desolation of the plain. For though from 




EUROPEAN RESIDENCES. 



this, the grandest of all Moslem minarets, no voice now calls 
to prayer, these Arabic inscriptions still proclaim, as they 
have done for centuries, the mercy and the majesty of God. 
As I turned thoughtfully away from it, I could but ask 
myself: " If the Europeans were to relinquish India to- 
morrow, what buildings would they leave worthy to be com- 
pared for a moment either with this glorious minaret or with 
the peerless structures of the Great Moguls?" 

By night the plain surrounding Delhi presents a scene of 
singular desolation. Upon a site once swarming with tumul- 
tuous life, a few poor hovels are the only human habitations. 
Yet everywhere, like wreckage floating on the sea, lie the 



INDIA 



51 



memorials of 
former great- 
ness. Dilapi- 
dated walls, 
deserted for- 
tresses, ruined 
mosques, soli- 
tary gateways, 
and crumbling 
towers are con- 
stantly in sight, 
some still re- 
taining vestiges 
of strength, oth- 
ers long since re- 
duced to masses 

of debris. One of these structures is of extraordinary beauty. 
It is the oldest Moslem tomb know^i to exist in India, and 

certainly there 




Oi^a or THE I.UXLt JUNAK S Kl\(_ 







')j~i 






EXQUISIIE SI ONE TKACERY NEAR DELHI. 



i-;^i«^» >i. 




hI^'^ 






c( 


^^'4 


^ 


■PF^ >' - y 


PA 




IS! 1- 


W-0^'t'ym 




,' * -^ 


'•'-1 




/ ' 


F 




*■■/..*• ', 


'^>! 




\% 




g 








T"^t 


wv wr 'i\' '', 


K 






• >•■» '.»' -^ 










vJ 


"^f ' r«- < ' 


I'i*, 




t!:^ 



are few so richly 
decorated. The 
roof, indeed, is 
gone, and the 
sarcophagus of 
alabaster which 
it protected is 
now unshel- 
tered from the 
sun and rain; 
but the old walls 
remain intact, 
and in their 
frost-like tra- 
cery in stone 



52 



INDIA 



remind one of the enchanting work of the Alhambra. Similar 
tombs are scattered broadcast on this plain ; yet what do we 
really know of any of the kings and warriors buried in them? 
A feeling of profound sadness took possession of me here, and 
I recalled the appropriate verses of the Persian poet, Omar 
Khayyam, written a hundred years before the Kutub Minar 
arose above this plain. 




TRAVELING WITH ELEPHANTS. 



Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who 
Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through, 

Not one returns to tell us of the Road, 
Which to discover we must travel too. 

Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai 
Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day, 

How Sultan after Sultdn with his Pomp 
Abode his destin'd Hour, and went his way. 

When You and I behind the Veil are past, 

Oh, but the long, long while the World shall last. 

Which of our Coming and Departure heeds 
As the Sea's self should heed a pebble-cast. 



f 



"^AiMJ^J 




MONUMENT AT CAWNPORE. 



INDIA 



55 



■ Ah, my Bel()\'ed, fill the Cup that clears 
To-day of past Regret and future Fears: 

To-morrow! — Why To-morrow I may be 
Myself with Yesterday's Sev'n thousand Years. 

' Yet Ah, that Spring should \'anish with the Rose! 
That Youth's sweet-scented manuscript should close! 

The Nightingale that in the branches sang, 
Ah whence, and whither flown again, who knows !" 



The name of Delhi is foi'ever associated with the great 
Indian mutiny in 1857, when England was suddenly con- 
fronted by a revolt of more than one hundred thousand 
trained Sepoys, or native soldiers, whom she had enrolled, as 
she supposed, for her defense. A spirit of discontent and 
hatred of the English had long been latent throughout 
India, but the immediate cause of the uprising was, as usual 
in all Indian 
troubles, a re- 
ligious one. 
Cartridges had 
been given to 
the troops, and 
these, it was 
reported, were 
greased with 
lard or tallow, 
to bite into 
which (as sol- 
diers were then 
obliged to do) 
was to the Hin- 
dus a contami- 
nation worse 

than death. The rumor of this sacrilege spread like wild-fire, 
and regiment after regiment murdered its English of^cers and 




OLD MOSLEM TOMB NEAR DELHI. 



56 



INDIA 



turned against the Europeans the weapons they had been 
taught to use. ^ ~~~--~..,^^ One part of Delhi 
is revered by y^ ^v every lover of 

brave men A^^^ • \. ^^cl valiant 

deeds, j^^^^y " ."";.■■ '. \ It is the 

grave of / ' \ General 

Nichol- / \ son, the 

hero/ "" , , \ of the 

siege of I ^.s,„, the city 

in 1857. \ ^ I The su- 

perbly v ;. K .. / built for- 

tress of \ / the Mo- 

gul emper- \ / o r s w a s 

then held by \^ y sixty thou- 

sand well-armed \v,^^ ^^ natives, many 

of whom had been ^ _-— -"''''^ soldiers of the Brit- 



ish army. Never- ^"^ °^ ™'^ °l° ^°^^- theless, an English 
force of only seven thousand men, led by the gallant Nicholson, 
resolved to dislodge them. To do this it was necessary to 
make an entrance through a structure called the Cashmere 




:*:.'W 





THE CASHMERE GATE, DELHI. 



INDIA 



57 



Gate. This Nicholson ordered to be blown up. It was a des- 
perate undertaking, for it was then surrounded with a moat ; 
but four intrepid heroes volunteered to attempt it. With 
heavy bags of powder on their heads, they dashed across the 
moat. The foremost was shot dead; the second fell to rise no 
more ; the third reached the gate and laid the powder, but was 
wounded; the fourth, however, lighted the train and sprang 
into the ditch. A moment later there was a fearful explosion, 






mu KliSlUEiNCV, LLCh 



the ponderous gate was shattered, and the English troops 
rushed in to victory and — in the case of Nicholson — to death. 
This memorial of British valor was still fresh in our minds 
when, shortly after leaving Delhi, we reached Lucknow and 
stood within its former Residency. It is now a ruin, deeply 
scarred by shot and shell ; but vines and flowers do their best to 
hide the ravages of cruelty and strife, and its old walls possess a 
serene and melancholy beauty peculiarly their own. Here, at 
the time of the mutiny, the position was exactly the reverse 
of that at Delhi. In this case, the English were the besieged. 
Scantily protected by these walls, through five long months 
of Indian summer heat, a force of about sixteen hundred 



58 INDIA 

fighting men, encumbered by five hundred women and chil- 
dren, heroically kept at bay no less than fifty thousand natives, 
who were not ignorant savages with uncouth instruments of 
war, but well-armed native soldiers, trained by British ofificers. 




IIIH (II. D WALLS AC LUCKNOW. 



Passing beyond the Baillie gate, through which at last, 
after those awful months of siege, the rescuing army forced 
its way, we saw the room where the commander of that 
garrison, the lion-hearted Henry Lawrence, when mortally 
wounded by a shell, received the sacrament and breathed his 
last. He was almost the only man in India Avho had fore- 
seen the coming storm in time to store up ammunition and 
prepare for war. As a rule, the mutiny took the British by 
surprise. So thoroughly had they relied upon their native 
regiments, that many British troops had been called home for 
the Crimean War. Only about twenty thousand English 
soldiers had been left in India, and these were scattered over 
an enormous territory, with scarcely any railroads to facili- 



INDIA 



6i 



tate their concentration. One can but marvel, therefore, 
that any foreigners were left to tell the tale. But English 
steadfastness and valor proved too much for even those ap- 
palling odds, and India was saved to England by just such 
heroes as Sir Henry Lawrence, who, as his life blood ebbed 
away, whispered the words inscribed upon his tomb : "I have 
tried to do my duty. May the Lord have mercy on my soul." 




THE BAILLIE GATE, LUCKNOW. 



When the remains of this noble patriot and Christian 
were laid to rest, the fighting was so severe that none of his 
officers dared to leave his post. But, one by one, the sol- 
diers who bore him to the grave, ere they lowered him into 
the earth, lifted the sheet which covered the face of their 
beloved commander, and reverently kissed his brow. 

Still bearing in mind those fearful days of '57, we jour- 
neyed from Lucknow to the town of Cawnpore. Tranquil 
enough it seems to-day, yet, forty years ago, there was 
enacted here one of the most awful tragedies ever recorded on 



62 



INDIA 



the page of history. There was no fort in Cawnpore, and, 
accordingly, when the mutiny broke out, the old commander. 
Sir Hugh Wheeler, assembled all the European residents in 
an open field, and raised around them a low wall of earth. 
To defend this position he could only muster about four hun- 
dred English soldiers, more than seventy of whom Avere inva- 
lids. Opposed to them were three thousand Sepoys, armed 
with muskets and cannon. Moreover, into this unsheltered 

area the dread- 
ful sun of India 
poured all day 
long its burning 
rays, almost 
as deadly in 
their effect as 
shot and shell. 
Making our 
way across this 
ground — mute 
witness of that 
physical and 
mental anguish, 
— we stood be- 
side the solitary 

well upon which these poor refugees depended for their water. 
To get this precious liquid men had to go at night ; for in the 
day, exposed to a sharp fire from the natives, to venture here 
meant certain death. The sight of it reminds one that two 
hundred English ladies, who had never known hardship or 
discomfort, together with many young and delicate children, 
were forced to lie, half mad with thirst, behind low earth- 
works, or else in holes dug in the ground, partially shaded 
from the deadly sun by garments stretched on the points of 
bayonets. 




KOUM WHI: 



IK HJiNk\ I.AWKKNCE DIED. 



INDIA 



63 




THE FIELD AT CAWNPORE. 



After twenty-one days, when Sir Hugh Wheeler had him- 
self fallen ill, and when the wretched garrison was desperate 
from sickness 
and starvation, 
they received 
a proposition 
from the native 
leader. Nana. 
He solemnly 
swore by the 
sacred Ganges 
that if t h e }' 
would surrender 
and lay down 
their arms, he 

would conduct them safely to the river, half a mile away, 
and send them all in comfortable boats down to the British 
colony at Allahabad. It was decided to accept the offer. 
Accordingly, the next morning, having given up their weap- 
. - — _ ons, all the sur- 

'$ ^< ^''-'",'^ "'k^' ' ' I vivors, includ- 

^* -/ ' ' ^^"M'^r^i. ,1 ing the wounded 

t 'iJ' - .- ""^'^ and the children, 

p - *-' *' ' " 1 e f t t h e a r e a 

r% ' ' . * where they had 

V ■ " . '' , ~ endured such 

misery, and 

I ^ started for the 

f river, along a 

path where there 

now stands a fine 

THE WELL. memorial church 

erected in their honor. Nana, upon whose promise they 

were thus relying, cannot be classed with any Zulu chief or 



64 



INDIA 



North American Indian. He was a native prince, — the owner 
of a splendid palace. Some of the ladies then tottering 
toward the river, more dead than alive, had danced at balls 
given at his residence. The officers, too, had drunk cham- 
pagne with him and thought him a most courteous fellow — 
for an Indian. The reason for Nana's treachery is plain. 
His father, when dethroned by England like so many other 
Indian princes, had been richly pensioned. Upon his death, 
Nana demanded the continuance of the pension. The British 
Government refused. Thenceforth, beneath that prince's 
suave and elegant manners lurked a thirst for vengeance. 
No one suspected him — he was so hospitable, so refined ! 
Even his secre- tary had been 

lionized in ^.,,^;'^'^'^^'' ~~~~---...^ London, 

and ^<^^' ^^^^ ^^-^ had 




A VILLAGE STREET. 




A PRINCESS. 



INDIA 



67 




THE MEMOKIAL CHURCH. 



been sent to the 
Crimea to study 
the art of war. 

Beside- the 
river is a stair- 
way known as 
the " Staircase 
of the Massa- 
cre." Down 
these steps the 
prisoners made 
their way with 
hope and joy. 
The boats were 
there. " Sure- 
ly," they thought, "there is no treachery: Nana has kept 
his Avord." While the women and children gladly went on 
board, on one side of the staircase stood the Englishmen; 

upon the other. 
Nana and his of- 
ficers. Sudden- 
ly Nana raised 
his sword. It 
was the signal 
for the butch- 
ery. At once 
a battery, till 
then concealed, 
poured on the 
wretched pris- 
oners a storm of 
grape-shot. Sir 
Hugh fell dead 
at once. Only 




THE GRAVE OF MANY HEROES, CAWNPORE. 



68 



INDIA 



fe. ., . 




\y 


W- 


. 


^^^1^,. ., .'*■" 






1^^ 




£■ 


1 


k 




' A 


^^^^ 



NEAR THI'. STU 



four wounded men, by feigning death and floating down the 
stream, succeeded in escaping. The women and children, 

however — then 
a company of 
widows and or- 
phans — were 
brought on 
shore, reserved 
for a more 
dreadful fate. 
Filled with un- 
utterable hor- 
ror, they must 

have envied then their husbands, fathers, and brothers, who 
had been killed before their eyes. A beautiful memorial 
park now occupies the place to which they were conducted. 
Here, for three 
weeks, in the 
appalling heat 
of India in July, 
two hundred 
and six Euro- 
pean ladies and 
children were 
pent up in two 
stifling rooms. 
Upon the wom- 
en the natives 
inflicted such 
insults as they 
liked, for they 
well knew that 
nothing would so lacerate English hearts as brutal treatment 
of their women. But when the troops of General Havelock 




THE STAIRCASE OF THE MASSACRE. 



INDIA 



69 



were reported to be near, Nana ordered all these prisoners 
to be brought out and shot. In an agony of dread, the 
women clung to each other so closely that it was impossible 
to separate them. Accordingly, the butchers finally rushed in 
upon them with drawn swords and bayonets, and amid heart- 
rending shrieks and piteous prayers the deed was done. 
There is in Cawnpore now a soldier who was one of the army 
of General Havelock, and who arrived here just four hours 



./' 




after the massacre, 
when he first be 
this slaughter 
to the earth 
Upon the 
traced in 
few ag- 
messages l 
at home, 
too, were 
marks and 
not high up 
fought with men, 
and about the cor- 
poor crouching vie- 
to pieces. Saddest of all, scattered upon the blood-smeared 
floor, were locks of golden hair and little children's shoes and 
playthings. The sight of these things drove the English 
troops to madness, and bearded men who had beheld, un- 
moved, the horrors of a hundred battles, sat down and wept 
in sickening anguish; then rose again, steeled evermore 
against a cry for mercy ! 

In the memorial park, surrounded by a beautifully sculp- 
tured screen, is the historic well, whither, on seeing the natives 
coming toward them, ten English women rushed, and, with- 
out hesitation, first threw their children in and then leaped 



A VETERAN OF HAVELOCK S ARMY. 



He told us that 

held the scene of 

^\ he almost fell 

with horror. 

\ walls were 

blood a 

o n i z e d 

,' to friends 

There, 

/ bullet- 

/ sabre-cuts; 

/ as if men had 

but low down 

n e r s , where the 

tims had been cut 



70 



INDIA 




FORMER HOME OF NANA. 



in themselves. Into this abyss the mutilated remains of 
those who had been massacred were also subsequently thrown, 

— mothers and 
children, the 
dying and the 
dead in one 
red, palpitating 
mass. Above 
this well, which 
forms the bur- 
ial-place of more 
than two hun- 
dred victims, an angel stands in snow-white raiment, so pure, 
so beautiful, and so pathetic from the memories which it 
evokes that at the sight the eyes grow dim with tears. One 
feels that it is 
"holy ground." 
The angel's 
arms are crossed 
upon the breast 
in resignation, 
while in each 
hand is held the 
martyr's palm. 
Over the arch- 
way is inscribed : 
"These are they 
who came out 
of great tribula- 
tion." Around 
the well-curb, 
too, I read these 
words: "Sacred to the perpetual memory of the great com- 
pany of Christian people, chiefly women and children, who 




THE MEMORIAL WELL. 



INDIA 



73 



near this spot were cruelly massacred by the followers of the 
rebel Nana, and cast, the dying with the dead, into the well 
below, on the 15th day of July, 1857." 

"No native is allowed to enter this enclosure," said the 
old soldier who here serves as guardian. We could not 
wonder at the law. 

Leaving this hallowed spot, we drove to a point beside 
the river Ganges, whence we could see the former residence 




AN INDIAN LANDSCAPE. 



of Nana, — the wretch upon whose guilty soul rests this 
inhuman crime. What became of him no one can tell. The 
British government offered a reward for his arrest, but he 
was never found. Some think this human tiger perished in 
the jungle. Others maintain that he is still alive, living in 
safety in the north of India, beyond the English lines. At 
all events, his fiendish work is over now, and the historic 
stream, once stained with England's bravest blood, now flows 
on peaceful and clear, just as within the lovely garden at 
the well the air which once resounded to the shrieks of anguish 
now echoes to the songs of birds. 

In addition to the tragedy at Cawnpore, horrible deeds of 



74 



INDIA 




s^^ 



A SOLDIER AND CAMEL. 



cruelty were enacted in other parts of India. In Delhi, deli- 
cate ladies and beautiful young girls were stripped of their 
clothing and driven naked through the 
streets, stoned, beaten, pelted with offal, 
and finally given over to the brutal passions 
of the rabble, until the terrified and horror- 
stricken women became raving maniacs or 
sank in death. More than once the fiends 
snatched children from their mother's arms 
and dashed their brains out on the walls. 
Some families, too, are said to have been 
burned to death. Surely, it is not strange 
that when the English once more gained the 
mastery, they blew a number of these de- 
mons from the cannon's mouth. 
A few days after leaving Cawnpore, I saw, in company 
with an English officer, some native regiments on parade. I 
asked him frankly what he thought about the chances of 
another mutiny. His answer was a guarded one. "We are 
more careful now," he said: "our British force will never 
again be so reduced as it was in '57. It numbered then only 
39,000 men as compared with 225,000 native soldiers. More- 
over, while we use Indian troops for infantry and cavalry, we 
keep most of 
the cannon in 
our own hands; 
and do not for- 
get that we 
have now a 
system of rail- 
ways and tele- 
graphs, which 

means that we can put down any insurrection quickly and 
effectively." But several civilians with whom we conversed 




\'i 



NATIVE TROOPS. 



INDIA 



75 



did not take this optimistic view. According to them, a vast 
majority of Hindus and Mohammedans would rise to-morrow, 
if they dared, especially if Russia's guns began to rouse the 
echoes of the Himalayas. Their first step undoubtedly would 
be to cut the telegraph wires and destroy the railroads ; and 
how much better off, they ask, would Europeans then be in 
India? Many a Maharajah is said to be secretly as discon- 
tented as was the rebel Nana. These fires of hate are merely 
smouldering now, but who can say they will not some day 
burst forth into 
aflame? At all 
events, it is sig- 
nificant that no 
natives, outside 
the army, are 
allowed to own 
or carry fire- 
arms. 

It must be re- 
membered also 
that, although 
in her schools 
and universities 
England is educating thousands of these natives and giving 
them employment, nevertheless it is just this class that is 
most discontented. They have learned enough to believe, 
and even to assert, that the original inhabitants of a country 
should govern it, and that it is absurd for a handful of Eng- 
lishmen, whose home is in another portion of the globe, to 
rule three hundred million people, entirely distinct from them 
in race, ideas, customs, and religion. Meantime, at the other 
end of the social scale are millions of fanatics who hate Eu- 
ropeans from religious motives, and would starve to death 
rather than eat a particle of food which Christian hands had 




AN ENGLISH REGIMENT. 



76 



INDIA 




SOME SUBJECTS Ol GREAT BRITAIN. 



touched. Be- 
tween these two 
opposing forces 
England stands 
to-day. 

The dwell- 
ings of the com- 
mon peasants 
on the plains 
of India sug- 
gested to my 
mind feathered 
dog-houses, 
sometimes sur- 
mounted by a 
second story, 

where the inmates keep a look-out for crows. One readily 
sees that the vast majority of these people do not understand 
the character and customs of the men who govern them. 
The Hindus, for example, living on a little rice, and thinking 

it an atrocious crime to kill an 
- -. ,^ '"^ animal, regard with horror and 

contempt the godless foreigners 
who gorge themselves with beef 
and mutton ; and the Moham- 
medans, who are forbidden by 
the Koran to touch intoxicating 
drinks, shudder 
to see Europe- 
ans consume as- 
tonishing quan- 
tities of brandy, 
whisky, and 
champagne. A 




A LOOk-OfT FOR CROWS. 








.^Kk 




INDIA 79 

story is told of a Hindu servant who was devotedly attached 
to his English master. When the latter died, the native 
desired to carry out the Oriental custom of comforting the 
spirit of the deceased by bringing to his tomb a sample of 
the food of which, in life, he had been especially fond. Ac- 
cordingly, he knelt beside his master's grave, and, with tears 




TEA PICKING IN INDIA. 



streaming down his cheeks, poured out to the dead English- 
man a copious libation of — brandy and soda. 

When one occasionally gains a glimpse of one of the 
Indian princes whom England has deposed, he naturally 
asks (as they themselves no doubt, have often done), "What 
right have the English in India, anyway?" About the same 
right they have in Burma and a score of other places; the 
same right that the French possess in Siam, or that various 
nations now have in the continent of Africa. The recent 



8o 



INDIA 




AN INDIAN PRINCE. 



history of Oriental politics is, after 
all, a simple one. Stripped of all 
glittering rhetoric, the situation is 
just this: Europe desires to control 
the trade of a certain country, and 
sends out merchants to obtain it. 
If the unfortunate country does 
not wish to trade, Europe bom- 
bards her till she yields and busi- 
ness is established. Of course, 
complications soon arise. The 
Orient is always in the wrong. A 
war ensues. The Orient is defeated 
and must pay indemnity. In order 
to collect it, European ofhcers are 
appointed, and the unhappy country is taken under European 
''protection," which means, eventually, not only annexation, 
but the appropriation of much private property. There have 
been writers, 
even among the 
English, bold 
enough to de- 
clare that Eng- 
land had no more 
right to the pri- 
vate jewels of 
one of the kings 
whom she de- 
throned in In- 
dia than to the 
crown diamonds 
of Russia. 

Yet, in justice 
to England, it 




PALACH OF A DETHRONED PRINCE. 



INDIA 



should be remembered that, although other European nations 
feio-n to regard such conduct with the utmost horror, they 
are all watching for a chance to do the same thing. The 
principal difficulty seems to be that England has appropriated 
almost everything in sight. The other nations, therefore, are 
in the position of the 

smaller lions, repre- | ; 

sented in the pic- i f i 

ture of Daniel in the 
lion's den, of which 
a Sunday-school 
boy once said to his 
teacher : " Please, 
ma'am, those little 
lions in the corner 
are n't going to get 
any Daniel at all ! ' ' 
It should be said, 
however, that Eng- 
land succeeds in her 
colonization where 
other nations often 
fail ; for she invari- 
ably sends the trader 
first, and then the 
soldier. France, on 
the contrary, usually 
sends the soldier first, and hence the trader sometimes does 
not come at all. 

An incident in my experience well illustrates these differ- 
ent modes of colonization. In sailing down the coast of 
China, from Hong-Kong to India, we stopped at the French 
settlement of Saigon. To our surprise, we were there able 
to attend an opera given by a company brought direct from 





> 



■^ 




A MAHARAJAH. 



82 



INDIA 



Paris. The French Government, at an expense of twenty- 
five thousand dollars, had sent it out there for the season, to 
keep the colonists from being so homesick that they would 
return to France, "Great Heavens!" cried one of our Eng- 
hsh passengers, "I wish Gladstone would do that for us. But 
in our colonies life 'means business' from the start. We 
young men come out here to succeed, or to go to the wall. 
It is a case of the survival of the fittest. The mother coun- 




SAILING SOUTH TO INDIA. 



try practically says to every one of us, as she casts us into the 
world, 'Root, hog, or die.' 

That British occupation is on the whole a blessing to 
India I have not the slightest doubt. Whether" the English 
really have a right to dominate the Mogul Empire, or not, 
there can be only one opinion as to the superiority of Anglo- 
Saxon rule over the usual tyranny of Indian princes. The 
British Government has built in India railways, bridges, high- 
roads, churches, hospitals, and schools. It has established 
national universities. It has abolished many horrible relig- 
ious customs, such as the burning alive of widows, and death 
beneath the car of Juggernaut; and, above all, it has given 
to India courts of justice, in which all natives, rich or poor, 



INDIA 



85 



Brahmins or Pariahs, can have their rights defended by the 
grand old principles of English law. 

The city which, more than all the rest of India, delights 
and satisfies 
the traveler, lies 
in the heart 
of the old Mo- 
gul Empire and 
is known as 
Agra. It sur- 
passes even Del- 
hi in its mag- 
nificent me- 
morials of the 
Mogul dynasty. 
Three struc- 
tures are espe- 
cially remark- 
able in this old 
capital of Ak- 
bar: the Mau- 
soleum of the 
Prince Itmad- 
ud-Daulat, the 
Mogul Palace, 
and the Taj Ma- 
hal. It is true, 
the first of these 
lies across the 
river Jumna, at 
a little distance ^"'^i' 'm-^m^^^ <>>■ w ixdian temple. 

from the city, and many tourists fail to visit it. But were it 
not for its proximity to the incomparable Taj, this tomb 
would be rep;arded as one of the marvels of India and would 




86 



INDIA 



of itself repay 
a lengthy pil- 
grimage. 

Itmad-ud- 
Daulat was the 
father- in-law 
and prime min- 
ister of the Mo- 
gul emperor, 
Jahangir, who 
succeeded his 
father Akbar in 
1605. Hismau- 
soleum stands, 
as is usually the 
case in India, 

in a beautiful garden, whose foliage and flowers form a lovely 
framework for the pure white marble of the edifice. The 
Oriental architects who worked for the Moguls thoroughly 
understood the value of perspective and the solemnity and 
dignity imparted to such structures by a gradual approach on 




AN INDIAN RAILWAY STATION. 




TOMB OF ITMAD-UD-DAULAT, AGRA. 



INDIA 



87 



marble pavements framed in verdure. This building is so 
perfectly proportioned that it is a constant pleasure to behold 
it, even from a distance, and when one comes to its threshold 
and examines it in detail, his admiration is unbounded. For 
the entire edifice without and within, in its windows, doors, 
walls, and graceful towers is a masterpiece of carved and per- 




A GORGEOUS MAUSOLEUM. 



forated marble, inlaid with precious stones. On the outside, 
the walls are beautiful expanses of the mosaic work called 
pietra dura, arranged in rectangles, diagonals, diamonds, 
cubes, stars, and other geometrical designs. While the arches 
are adorned with flowers carved in marble, the inner walls and 
niches are embellished with flowers in mosaic, whose colors, 
set in jewels, never fade. In the place of windows also are 
placed alabaster screens, so exquisitely cut and perforated 
that they appear like white lace curtains, through whose fine 
apertures the sunbeams filter to a dust of gold. 



88 INDIA 

This tomb is not a rival of the Taj Mahal. It could not 
be, for the Taj is the most beautiful structure in the world. 
But, being smaller, this can perhaps be studied to better 
advantage, and, since the style of decoration in both build- 




AT AI.KA. 



ings is very similar, this can explain some features of the 
greater edifice, which might, in the confused emotions there 
awakened, escape our notice. Moreover, the Taj appeals to 
us as an expression of man's love for woman. This tomb has 
no such sentiment connected with it, and merely marks the 
resting-place of one almost unknown to history, and whose 
very name is spelled in half a dozen ways. Nevertheless, it 
is one of the most beautifully proportioned and richly deco- 
rated buildings in the world ; and as I turned at the entrance 
of the lovely garden to take a farewell view of its enameled 
walls and jeweled towers, I thought the scene a perfect illus- 
tration of the well known lines : 

"A palace lifting to eternal summer 
Its marble halls from out a glossy bower 
Of coolest foliage, musical with birds." 



INDIA 



91 



In Agra as in Delhi, stands a mighty fortress, built by 
Akbar. I could not think of this as a mere citadel. It 
seemed rather a city in itself; for it is nearly two miles in 
circumference, and is entirely enclosed by ramparts seventy 
feet in height. Around it winds a moat a hundred feet in 
breadth, from which at frequent intervals rise massive towers, 
like mediaeval castles on the Rhine. The color of this belt 
of masonry is a deep red, which in the glow of sunset is sug- 
gestive of the sanguinary scenes it has so often looked upon. 
At such a time one easily fancies that the moat itself is filled 
with blood, whose horrible reflection paints itself upon the 
stone. 

Its massive gateway, guarded constantly by sentinels, is a 
reminder that the primary object of this structure is defense. 

At all events, a 

large amount of 
arms and ammu- 
n i t i o n is now 
stored within its 
walls; and in 
the event of an- 
other mutiny, 
this would be- 
come invaluable 
as a place of 
refuge. In the 
days of the Mo- 
gul emperors 
this fortress was 
a kind of strons" 




THE GATEWAY. 



box, containing the palace and the sacred treasures of the 
empire. To some extent it is so still. For, though the 
throne of the Moguls has fallen, and their resplendent diadems 
and diamond-hilted swords have all passed into other hands, 



92 



INDIA 



yet even now this beautifully sculptured casket holds some 
architectural jewels that have few equals in the world. 

The first of these to greet the tourist as soon as he has 
passed the portal, is called the Pearl Mosque, and from its 
spotless purity and beauty it deserves the name; for every- 
where in its enclosure, — roof, columns, walls, and pavement 
are as white as alabaster. No other sanctuary on earth exhibits 
such simplicity and purity. Here are no images or paintings. 




A CORNER OF THE FORT, AGRA. 



or even gilding; one is surrounded only by the chaste white 
marble, with vines and flowers carved upon it in relief. Oh, 
the immeasurable superiority of this immaculate pearl of Ori- 
ental architecture over the sickening idolatry and filth of Hin- 
duism ! No furniture, not even a rug, profanes this beautiful 
expanse; but the marble pavement is carefully divided by 
the sculptor's chisel into rectangular spaces, on each of which 
a follower of Mahomet may kneel in prayer. What an exam- 
ple is this of the restraining power of the Mohammedan 
religion ! For, more than twelve hundred years ago, the 
Koran forbade the followers of the Prophet to make any 



INDIA 



95 



likeness of animal life, lest it should lead to idolatry; and 
during all these centuries that rule has been obeyed. The 
Moslems, it is true, have thus been kept from cultivating 
painting and sculpture, but what have they not accomplished 




THE PEARL MOSQUE. 



in architecture, from Granada to Damascus, and from these 
Mogul palaces to the Taj Mahal ! 

At a little distance from this mosque, but still within the 
fort, stands the palace in which the Mogul emperors resided 
when at Agra. It seems as if the inmates of such glorious 
halls should have led lives as full of joy as their apartments 
were of beauty. Yet sculptured stone, however exquisite, 
can never satisfy the heart, and even jeweled walls cannot 



g6 



INDIA 






atone for loss of liberty. So it 
was here. Its builder was the 
lavish Shah Jehan, who also built 
the equally magnificent palace at 
Delhi and the incomparable Taj 
Mahal. And yet he spent the 
last seven years of his life here, 
a hopeless captive, imprisoned 
-^ _, ~^= p by his rebellious son ; expenenc- 

incr thus that bitterest of sor- 
rows, — ill-treatment and ingrat- 
itude from a heartless child. 
One thing, however, gave Shah 
Jehan some consolation; for, 
when all others had abandoned 
him, his faithful daughter would not leave him. She volun- 
tarily shared his long imprisonment, striving to make her 



•"■^jLI" 



■^-'j^ 




A PAVILION, AGRA. 





A MAKLiLt SCREEN. 



INDIA 



97 



love atone for all 
that he had lost. 
Her very name, 
"Jehanara,"was 
but the softened 
echo of his own, 
and it was in 
giving birth to 
this child that 
the Emperor's 
idolized wife 
had died. Re- 
nowned for wit TOMB OF JEHANARA. 

and beauty, she might have held a brilliant place at her 
brother's court; but she preferred the prison of her father, 
displaying thus the noble traits of character that have immor- 
talized her memory. 

Nothing in India is more pathetic than her burial-place. 
Having seen the hoUowness of royal luxury, she begged, 





A PORTION OF THE PALACE AT AGRA. 



98 



INDIA 



when on her death-bed, that grass and flowers should be her 
only covering. Her wish has been respected. It is true an 
alabaster screen now forms a frame-work for her couch of 
death, but the space thus enclosed is covered merely with 

green turf. Up- 
on the marble 
headstone are 
inscribed these 
words: "Let 
no rich canopy 
adorn my grave. 
These simple 
flowers are most 
appropriate for 
one who was 
poor in spir- 
it, though the 
daughter of Shah 
Jehan." 

The pavilion 
in which the Mo- 
gul sovereign 
was imprisoned 
was, like all the 
rest of the palace, 
1 replete with lux- 
ury and beauty ; 
i„K iKiso., u.- siiAu jk„a::. y^^ j |. g jnmate 

was a broken-hearted man. He had enjoyed unlimited power: 
it was his no more. He had erected buildings which even 
to-day astonish and delight the Avorld : this he could do no 
longer. He had so dearly loved his wife, that when she died 
he reared for her the fairest mausoleum which this earth has 
ever seen ; yet when it was completed he could not enter it 




INDIA 



lOI 



to weep beside her grave. Worse than all, the man who had 
thus robbed him of his throne, his wealth, his occupation, 
and his liberty, besides murdering his three remaining sons, 
was his own child by the woman he had so adored ! 

In realizing these facts, one naturally asks: "Was not this 
Mogul emperor a Mohammedan, and do not Moslems usually 
regard their wives as pretty toys, — mere creatures of a day, 




AUDIENCE HALL AND TERRACE, AGRA. 



who have not even souls to insure them immortality?" 
Undoubtedly; and this, indeed, is the mystery and marvel of 
it all, that such a man (the sovereign of an Eastern court, 
with all material pleasures open to his choice) should have so 
idolized his lawful wife that when she died he vowed to build 
for her the grandest tomb that man could frame, and kept 
his promise, too, although the work required twenty years. 
Yet this woman, who was the joy and light of his life, was no 
young bride, whose early death had made her seem to him 



I02 



INDIA 



an ideal character. She was the mother of his children ; and 
when at last she died in his arms, he had been wedded to her 
fourteen years. 

We stood with reverence beside the window of his room, 
and saw in the distance, as he so often did, the peerless monu- 




THE ENTRANCE TO THE GARDEN OF THE TAJ. 



ment of love he reared to her, — the Taj Mahal. Toward 
those white domes, whose soft reflection lay like pearls within 
the adjacent stream., his dying eyes were turned as over them 
crept the film of death. Within that wonderful edifice he is 
buried with the one he loved. For, far more merciful in 
death than he had been in life, his son allowed the body of 
the deposed emperor to be borne thither to repose beside that 
wife whom this majestic structure will make famous to the 
end of time. 

Leaving the Mogul palace, we drove along the river to the 
beautiful park of forty acres that surrounds the Taj. This 



INDIA 



103 



garden, which is to the Taj what the setting is to the jewel, 
is entirely enclosed by a lofty wall. Grandeur and beauty 
here go hand in hand, for the gateway to this area is no less 
than one hundred and forty feet in height and a hundred feet 
in breadth, and its red sandstone frame is exquisitely decor- 
ated with mosaic in white marble. Impatient, however, to 
behold a still greater treasure, we passed beneath this portal 
and gazed upon the Taj itself. It was still distant. Be- 
tween us and its pure white form we saw a garden of great 
beauty. Down through the centre led a stately avenue with 
marble pavement white as snow. Beside it was a canal of 
water, from which at times a score of fountains rose like silver 
trees. Within its limpid flood a thousand goldfish gleamed 
like jewels in the sunlight. On the right and left stood rows 
of cypress trees, like funeral plumes; while farther still were 
groves of palms and orange trees, whose foliage is swayed by 




LOOKING TOWARD THE TAJ. 



breezes fragrant with the breath of flowers. Thousands of 
roses bloom here during the entire year, sacred to death and 
to a deathless love. Speechless, as in a dream, we walked on 
through this flowery paradise, and drew still nearer to the 
Taj. Letting our gaze move slowly from its base to its 



I04 



INDIA 



summit, two hundred and ninety-six feet, above our heads, we 
noted, first, a massive platform of red sandstone, measuring 
on each side a thousand feet. From this a marble terrace 
rises to serve as a pedestal for the Taj itself. As for the 
structure in the centre, the first bewildering glance revealed 
what seemed to be a delicately sculptured mountain of pure 
alabaster, supporting on its crest a sparkling dome, light as a 

radiant bubble, 
which might at 
any moment float 
away and vanish 
into air. After one 
rapturous look at 
its sublime pro- 
portions the last 
doubt was dis- 
pelled forever. 
The conquest was 
complete ; and I 
became a wor- 
shiper of the Taj, 
like all the mill- 
ions who had gone 
before me. The 
fundamental secret of this charm, like that of most things 
that are truly great, is its simplicity. It is not complicated 
in design. It has the purity and simple majesty of the Jung- 
frau. It is to Saracenic, what the Athenian Parthenon was 
to Grecian art. The mind can grasp it without effort. Its 
perfect harmiony recalls the phrase of Madame de Stael, that 
"architecture is frozen music." One part balances another, 
the platform is proportioned to the pedestal, the smaller 
domes to the great central one, and the minarets to the entire 
structure. It is the one completely faultless edifice that man 



m 




A MOUNTAIN OF ALABASTER. 



INDIA 



107 





GATEWAY SEEN FKOM THE GARDEN 



has reared. Pass- 
ing slowly around 
it, we viewed the 
Taj from the bank 
of the river Jum- 
na. At each of 
the four corners 
of its pedestal a 
marble minaret 
springs heaven- 
ward, like a silver 
arrow, piercing 
the air one hun- 
dred and forty feet 
above the pave- 
ment, and on the eastern as well as on the western side of the 
huge platform stands a graceful mosque. No doubt these 
mosques and minarets were deemed essential, lest this majestic 

edifice should 

f ' : t u r n m e n s 

thoughts from 
heaven. At all 
events, from 
one of these 
four marble 
shafts, uplift- 
ed toward the 
sky, there floats 
out on the air, 
five times a day, 
the muezzin's 
musical remind- 
er of the only 
God. 



I 



V# "V' ?..•»', ^-^ '*• 






LACEWOKK IN MARBLE. 



io8 



INDIA 



Our admira- 
tion of the Taj 
was still further 
increased, when 
we examined 
its marvelous 
decorations. 
Around each 
archway, inlaid 
in black mar- 
ble, are delicate 
arabesques and 
countless verses 
from the Koran, 
— the graceful 
Oriental char- 
acters mingling and intertwining like the finest scroll-work 
or the slender stems and tendrils of a creeping vine. The 




A SECTION OF THE TAJ. 




THK SCREEN OF ALABASTEK. 



INDIA 



109 



walls appear almost as massive as the eternal hills, yet 
on their milk-white surface thousands of roses, tulips, hya- 
cinths, and daisies are sculptured in relief, as though real gar- 
lands had been hung here once with such consummate skill 
that some delighted genie of the Arabian Nights had, by a 
stroke of the enchanter's wand, transformed them into stone. 
As I surveyed them with delight, I caught my breath to think 
of all the labor represented here, and of the patient fingers 
(long since turned to dust), which planted all these jeweled 
flowers in their snow-white beds, and 
made them bloom unchanged from cen- i 

tury to century. The Taj, which was _%-^. 

begun in the year 1630, is said to have 
occupied twenty thousand men for twenty 
years. All India furnished its materials. 
The marble came from one province, the 
sandstone from another. The Punjab 
sent it jasper; Ceylon gave sapphires and 
lapis-lazuli ; and agate, onyx, tur- 
quoises, and carnelians came from 
Thibet, Persia, and Arabia. A twi- 
light gloom pervades the interior of 
this wonderful mausoleum; but if 
electric light could, suddenly be in- 
troduced here, one could believe 
himself within Aladdin's cave. For 
then the walls would show with daz- 
zling effect their inlaid agate, jasper, 
bloodstone, and carnelian. It seems 
as if the emperor, in madness at his 
loss, and counting earthly wealth as 
nothing, had thrust his arms repeat- 
edly into the glittering coffers of the 
Mogul treasury, and, drawing forth 







A TOWER AT AGRA. 



I lO 



INDIA 



great handfuls of rare gems, had scattered them upon this 
tomb, as ordinary men would lay upon a grave bouquets of 
flowers. In the very centre of the mausoleum I saw what 
seemed to be a circular frame of lace suspended from the 
roof by unseen cords. It is, in reality, a screen of alabaster, 
six feet in height and sixty in circumference. Each panel is 
a single piece of alabaster several inches thick, yet carved 




i ] — ^ - ■ ""V. ' ^^ s 



1 - ^ {' "f «' 







THE TOMBS OF SHAH JEHAN AND HIS WIFE. 



with so much elegance and skill that one must touch it to 
believe it stone. Within this exquisite enclosure are two 
marble cenotaphs, completely covered with mosaic-work in 
precious stones, one hundred being sometimes used to repre- 
sent a single flower; and through this mass of floral decor- 
ations runs a delicate Persian script, telling the story of these 
royal lovers in lines of which each letter is a gem. 

Appropriately enough the sweetest echo in the world 
dwells in this jeweled cavern. The dome receives all sounds 
within its silvery crucible, transforms them into purest har- 



INDIA 111 

mony, and sends them down again as if the upper space were 
tenanted by a celestial choir, chanting an endless requiem to 
this ideal union both in life and death. It is particularly 
sensitive to gentle sounds, and a few notes, sung softly here, 
float up in rhythmic waves to break upon the concave of the 
marble arch again, and yet again, until they tremblingly die 
away like whispered accents of impassioned love. Can any- 
thing be more beautiful than this — a building dedicated to the 
memory of a beloved wife, and at the same time the most 
perfect structure in the world? It is the grandest yet most 
delicate homage that man has ever paid to womankind. 

There are at least two places in this world where moonlight 
is essential to complete our happiness — they are Venice and 
Agra. I had arranged the date of my arrival here with this in 
view, and hence it was my inestimable privilege to stand here 
at midnight on the thirty-first of December. Then, gazing 
on this miracle of beauty, I watched the Old Year take its 
flight and the New Year steal in with noiseless footsteps, as 
if to pay its first devotions to the Taj. And as I saw the 
moonlight gild the slender minarets, till they appeared like 
beautiful wax tapers lighting this abode of death, and then 
beheld the Taj itself, one glorified expression of immortal 
genius, it seemed too wonderful to be reality. It was, in 
truth, a dream in marble, and, sweetest of all dreams — a 
dream of love. 









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LECTURE X 



THE PASSION PLAY 



The only modern drama that can compare with the mod- 
els of classical antiquity is the Passion Play, performed every 
ten years by the inhabitants of the Bavarian village, Ober- 
Ammergau. Like the august masterpieces of ancient Greece, 
it is produced in the open air, in broad daylight, amid the 
hum of bees, the songs of birds, and the rustle of foliage 
stirred by the wind; and like them, too, it appeals to the 
imagination by the startling realism of its spectacular effects 
and by the solemn grandeur of its theme. In skill the old 
Greek dramatists are unapproached, but in earnestness of 
purpose they must yield to the villagers of Ober-Ammergau, 
whose portrayal of Christ's life and death give a new con- 
ception of the Crucifixion. 

Mr. John L. Stoddard's tenth lecture places the Passion 
Play in all its features, with all its accompaniments, before his 
readers. The text is embellished with artistic reproductions 
of the author's specially prepared photographs of persons and 
places, as well as of old masterpieces, the whole comprising 



119 Illustrations 



covering the last stages of the Saviour's career, and depicting 
the most important phase of his divine mission. 

Lecture X will be supplied at the special introductory 
price charged for previous issues of the series. 



THE LAKESIDE PRESS, R. K. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY, PRINTERS, CHICAGO. 



t)!Ml«,r.„.^,!^. CONGRESS 




